Stuck In Your Head

 By Henry Lipput

On his new album, Earworms (Big Stir Records) Nick Frater has come up with tunes that stick in your head and stay with you for the rest of the day -- and sometimes, if you're lucky, even longer. Frater is a UK-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist who specializes in evoking the sounds of ‘60s and ‘70s pop. 

Back here in the U.S. we had AM radio in the ‘70s that played music by bands like Rasperries, Wings, early Daryl Hall/John Oates (I‘m thinking of 1973’s Abandoned Luncheonette), and piano men Elton John and Billy Joel. And although Big Star and Emitt Rhodes weren’t being played on the radio at the time they have become over the years a very big part of our musical DNA -- and Frater is certainly aware of this.

Recordng at his home in Croydon, and prevented by lockdowns from calling on his regular band and studios, Frater instead pulled together an impressive group of home recordists spread across the UK and U.S. including Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Jellyfish/Beck), Darian Sahanaja (Wondermints/Brian Wilson), Mike Randle (Love/Baby Lemonade), Dana Countryman, drummer-in-a-closet Nick Bertling, and many others. 

The first track on the album, “It’s All Rumours,” is a rave-up that recalls the guitars and lead vocal of Eric Carmen and company. “Buggin’ Out” is a pop treat as well as a mashup of decades with it’s references to ‘50s doo wop backing vocals and  Abbey Road-era George Harrison guitar. 

“What’s With Your Heavy Heart” is both a musical and lyrical tribute to Emitt Rhodes. The line “What’s with your heavy heart?/Love is just another to fall apart/On a second chance/Falling with my face on the floor” makes it hard not to think of the Rhodes track “Face On The Floor” from his 1970 self-titled album.

“Lucky Strike” begins with a Supertramp vamp and although Frater’s fellow pop traveler, the late, great Owsley, wasn't around in the 70s, his influence can be heard on the melody lines of this song as well as Earworm’s “Not Born Again.”

The lovely “Star-Crossed” is the song McCartney never wrote for his albums Red Rose Speedway or Venus And Mars. And the short, sweet “How To Survive Somebody” is another Raspberries callback that starts quietly with its choral-like backing vocals and builds to a musical crescendo.

Frater has said he wanted to “make an album that sounds and feels like a lost treasure from the mid '70s melodic rock scene,” and he delivers the goods. In addition, the amazing album cover by Adam Mallett, an homage to the great Klaus Voormann cover for Revolver, is just icing on the cake.

Light Up Your Ears

 By Henry Lipput

With his talent for tunes and a voice like a choirboy, Peter Hall’s Light The Stars (Bandcamp) is the most gorgeous pop album you’ll hear this year. If Hall wanted to make a “full-on, full-length, melodic electric blanket” (his words) of a collection of songs he has certainly done it in spades with this release.

The new album is a follow-up to last year’s wonderful There’s Something Wrong With Everyone EP (CD: The Beautiful Music/Digital: Bandcamp) and the new album is, in both songwriting and production, a continuation and a step ahead in his musical progression. And except for drums on two songs, Hall plays instruments on every song.

The first indication of how marvelous Light The Stars would be was the release of the first single “Two Twenty Two” in July.  The Beatles aren’t name-checked in the song but it’s clear from the lyrics the song is about falling in love with a song and sharing that feeling with a loved one: “Just turn it over when it fades/Like we used to do/P.S. I love you.”

The next single was the equally lovely “The Best Idea” about a bump in a relationship” On Bandcamp, the single also includes “How Could You?” a non-album track which is reason enough to have two copies of  the song. A father and son conversation concludes with the father, after letting the son know everything he’s done to raise him right, telling him “you’re just like me;” that's not how it was supposed to turn out.

Every song on Light The Stars is a treasure. Some that have stuck with me are the jingle-jangle of the opener “Save Yourself,"  the title song has a bass-driven vibe and guitar solo not unlike mid-period Squeeze as well as a big, bold ending, and the dazzling, acoustic closer “The Last Day” is a twin to “She Fell From The Sky” on last year’s EP. 

But nothing quite prepares you for the glorious sound of “Firefly.” With it’s soaring backing and vocals, it’s the best song on what is clearly one of the best albums of the year.